Business

Saturday August 22, 2009

A Hitz way to engage youth

By LEE KIAN SEONG


WITH the youth making up more than half its population, Malaysia is always an attractive market for many businesses. Naturally, one of them is subscription TV service provider Astro All Asia Networks plc. When you are a broadcaster, ignoring young people is definitely not an option.

With the help of wholly-owned subsidiary, Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd, Astro aims to capture a larger share of the local youth market, particularly through music channel Hitz, by employing a combination of advertising pillars that include TV, radio, the Internet, mobile and on-the-ground activities.

Astro Entertainment was formed in 2007 with the aim of creating, developing and packaging local content and channels for the Malay language segment in Malaysia and the region.

Zainir Aminullah ... ‘The viewership for our Hitz channel is about 800,000, and almost all of them are youths.’

It drives the end-to-end delivery of nine Astro-branded channels – Ria, Prima, Oasis, Ceria, Awani, Warna, Citra, Aruna and Hitz.

Astro Entertainment executive director Zainir Aminullah points out that the youth are the next decision makers and therefore, engaging with them is actually paving the way for establishing a connection with future audiences.

“The viewership for our Hitz channel is about 800,000, and almost all of them are youths,” he tells StarBizWeek in a recent interview.

He adds that a music channel is a niche advertising platform compared to a general entertainment channel, and can be expanded through the combination of various advertising platforms.

Hitz works with Hitz.FM radio station, which has over 1.3 million listeners, to develop music programmes, contests, activities and music playlists.

Says Zainir: “We use five advertising pillars in sending the advertisers’ message on the music platform. These include TV, radio, mobile, Internet and on-the-ground activities.”

He adds that it is important to maintain the personal touch with consumers through different activities and platforms.

The Hitz channel is a combination of English and Malay languages programmes and songs. However, the company’s focus is in producing Malay language content.

Astro plans to spend about RM300mil to produce local content annually. Zainir says Astro Entertainment intends to tap a substantial portion of that amount to develop Malay language programmes because over 50% of Astro’s 2.7 million subscribers are Malay.

He adds that producing more local content is one of the company’s key growth strategies.

On advertising sales for the nine Astro-branded channels in the first six months of this year, he says the performance was in line with the weak market conditions but it is starting to show some signs of recovery.

“Our Hitz channel breaks the declining trend in advertising sales as advertisers perceive the channel differently due to its target market and the different promotion platforms that we provide,” he says.

Although the music channel is not a significant contributor to the company’s sales currently, it has been identified as one of the key growth drivers going forward.

For now, Ria, Prima and Ceria are still the prime channels for the company. Astro Entertainment has also invested in a few local production houses that come up with programmes such as documentary and entertainment shows, and it plans to further develop this area.

On the programmes produced by the company, Zainir says the first-run transmission hours for local content have more than doubled from 1,700 hours in 2007 to 3,900 hours last year.

He adds that Astro Entertainment aims to explore business opportunities overseas and is developing channels in Singapore and Brunei.

“Our target is to produce local programmes in the regional market, and not only in Malay-speaking nations,” he says, adding that the company does not provide programmes in Indonesia because Astro has ceased its operations there.

According to Zainir, the company also plans to venture into Europe through its newly-created animation, which features the character Mat Kacau.

“We will introduce it at MIPCOM in France this October,” he adds. MIPCOM is an event held annually for the buying and selling of content (for film and television).

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